Big Bend Birthday

My husband and I love a good road trip adventure— So much that we have started a tradition in 2012 to go on a road trip every year, even if it is a mini one (which they have all been kind of mega.) They typically take place during April-May since that is when we both celebrate our birthdays! Nothing beats just the two of us driving 70+ mph down the highway seeing beautiful sights of this amazing country listening to some good tunes.

In 2013, we drove to Nevada from Texas (my mom and sister live in CA) to get married! No, we didn’t get married by Elvis— It was a planned outdoor ceremony at a gorgeous country club with a view of the Nevada desert with just our closest friends and families in attendance.

Last year, we decided to go big and take a long route to Yosemite National Park in CA. We drove through Texas- Oklahoma- Kansas- Colorado- Utah- Arizona- Nevada- California. It was the most stunning road trip we have ever been on. The best views started in Colorado driving through the Rockies— scariest driving experience of my life but so worth it. Utah just kept getting better and better, then Yosemite— after seeing Yosemite Valley your jaw will drop because it is so unbelievably stunning. So if you guys have 2 weeks to road trip this route, I highly recommend! It is such a fun once-in-a-lifetime ride! My husband and I came home feeling just so much more in love and more powerful as a couple.

So finally, this year on my birthday. My husband planned for us to road trip to Big Bend National Park. This park is about 7 hours from Fort Worth; 14 hours round trip! We were only able to go for one day because I had just shot the Reward Style Conference and I knew my clients needed pictures ASAP. So anyways, my sweet husband drove all 14 hrs because he didn’t want me to! He considered it my birthday present— how did I get this lucky?! I decided the whole day I was going to stay off of Instagram and just be with my husband and live in the moment.

So there’s literally nothing in-between Fort Worth and Big Bend until you actually get about an hour away from the park is where you start seeing great views. It was the most ugliest rainy day and we were just so nervous about how the weather was going to be when we arrived to Big Bend and the possibility that we just wasted our time since we wouldn’t be able to hike with the weather like how it was. As soon as we got to Big Bend, I don’t know what it was-- but the sky cleared to blue and the sun came shining through. This is where our AC in the car went out too, so it was a bittersweet moment.

We decided to take the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to the Santa Elena Canyon. We drove the 30 mile stretch with the windows down blasting out some good ol’ Mumford and Sons, not letting the AC affect our mood.

As soon as we saw the Santa Elena Canyon, there was a good silence between us as we saw the stunning view of the Rio Grande. Everything we had went through to get to that moment was so worth it. The hike was amazing and we met some fun people along the way. After leaving the park, it went back to ugly scary weather-- it looked like a tornado could happen in any moment. It was still an adventure because we saw a rainbow and some fireworks along the way (Nick said Midland, TX planned it for my B-day lol.) I’ll save the rest of my memory from that day to myself. :)

I hope you all enjoy the images I captured during the trip!

As always, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this post!